A Cinderella Duplex : Big Ideas Turn Two Units Into One Stylish Redo

“CREATIVE DESIGN COSTS NO MORE than uncreative design,” says Hollywood-based architect Simon Miller. He tested his premise last year on a duplex-to-single-family-home conversion in West Hollywood for Moji Shahkarami and Nemy Karimi, owners of the avant-garde clothing boutique Roppongi on Melrose Avenue. Miller scooped out the structure’s maze-like interior and replaced it with simple lines, high ceilings and a clerestory loft that adds 600 square feet, bringing the total square footage up to 2,100. All this was accomplished for about $100,000, which included a new foundation, plumbing, rewiring and landscaping.

Major structural changes limited the budget for decorative elements, but Miller compensated easily with store-bought cupboards, industrial materials and a note of whimsy in his design. On the exterior, Miller stripped away aluminum siding and replastered the house with a smooth, industrial-gray stucco. Traditional paneled front doors were transformed with an iridescent blue finish, the result of 12 different hues applied by artist Dennis Dike. A curved awning of polished aluminum, designed by New Zealand sculptor Brett Goldstone, creates an unusual, welcoming portal, and a triangular dormer looks out from the new loft.

Stepping through the double doors into the living / dining room, a visitor faces a slender bearing column finished with concrete that marks where the house was once divided into two tiny, four-room units. A bright yellow wall set at an angle separates the dining room from the kitchen, which is equipped with cupboards purchased (and carried home the same day) from STOR. “Simplification is the secret of architecture,” Miller says. “Walls do not have to be static and fixed; they can be angled and curved. The simple use of volume and line generates a comfortable environment.”

A closer look at the interior, which now has six spacious rooms, reveals numerous cost-efficient ideas. The floor resembles mahogany but is actually apitong --a Malaysian hardwood that is used for truck beds and costs only 80 cents a linear foot at Bohnhoff Lumber Co. in Los Angeles. Windows were purchased inexpensively because they were overstock items from City Sash & Door in Marina del Rey. The mantel of an existing gas fireplace was built out at sharp angles to create a focal point, and industrial scaffolding pipe--Speedrail from Industrial Metals in Burbank--serves as the stair rail.

The sugar-pine fence along the patio offers a lighter note. It was jigsaw-cut in the shapes of witches’ profiles, martini glasses, dogs--a few of the 120 patterns available from Miller’s firm, the Dogman Institute of Los Angeles. Then the fence was whitewashed and stained olive, pumpkin, earth and sage. Says Miller of his unconventional touches: “A house must please its creator and delight its inhabitants.”